Affordable, reliable
web hosting solutions

> > > HOME / PROFIT / SELLING PODUCTS OR SERVICES / INCREASING / ARTICLES /

Narrow Your Focus to Broaden Your Sales
Article by Michel Fortin

If you say that your ideal client is a technical programmer, between the ages of 25 and 35, and earning over $25,000 per year, then your chances of reaching such an audience by plastering your link all over the Internet will be fairly minuscule. And even if your message does happen to appear in front of your specific market, chances are that it will go unnoticed due to the general nature of the location in which your message appears. This is not good.

Although most business owners are aware of clear, target marketing strategies to achieve results that could be far more effective and cost-efficient, the ideology remains: To be successful one must be everywhere. That statement may be true to some degree and should not be discounted. But it is far better to be everywhere that matters.

In other words, your message should appear in front of those people who will likely read your ad and take action. If you promote your online business in places in which your target market is likely to congregate, it is fair to admit that your immediate costs will likely be higher.

Targeted marketing is not cheap. However, the bottom-line is the fact that your cost-per-visitor (or cost-per-lead) and even cost-per-sale will have decreased substantially as a result. That's more important. In essence, it will certainly be cheaper for you to spend the money in these targeted areas than it would be in trying to find those ideal clients any other way.

Remember that your goal should be to attract people to your site who have a genuine interest in what you have to offer. Targeting as many people as possible particularly with a message that appeals to only a portion of them may produce a fair amount of hits. But it will mostly consist of people who will never be your clients anyway -- the curious and not the serious.

For example, banners are reported by certain research firms as losing their effectiveness. On the other hand, targeted banners have conversely increased. Moreover, if your banner not only appears in front of targeted audiences but also appeals to them specifically, it is likely that the number of click-throughs consisting of potential, qualified clients will be much higher.

With all things being equivalent, if your ad appears on a site that caters to your ideal market (versus a more general site like Yahoo!, for example), you may get less hits but you will certainly get more sales. (However, it is worth mentioning at this point that Yahoo! also offers targeted banner impressions on search result pages based on specific keywords.)

Nevertheless, combining targeted and niche-based marketing strategies can make substantial improvements over general, non-focused marketing. By lessening your market as well as the market to which you advertise, you will proportionately increase your sales.

1 2 3